Planned Turn Lanes Are Focus Of Anger

By Carl Glassman
POSTED DEC.4, 2006

It was around 3 p.m., and as P.S./I.S. 89 emptied of students, Bob Townley and some middle school volunteers manned a table in front of the school, at Warren and West Streets. On the fence behind them hung a photo showing that intersection, superimposed with arrows, where two more turn lanes are proposed. Another sign declared: “Keep West Street Safe!”

“Folks!” Townley yelled over the din of children. “If you haven’t signed our petition, come on over on your way out.” Ellen Hunter, with daughters ages 5 and 2 in tow, stopped to talk.   “I cross West Street at least five or six times a day. This is gonna be terrible if they change this street!” she said.

“Already, it’s difficult. My kids know to run when we cross at this corner, because they don’t give you enough time.”

“We know the ebb and flow of the neighborhood better than the engineers,” said Townley.

Indeed, Townley and a task force of Community Board 1 members were collecting signatures and gathering political steam last month in an effort to block plans by the state’s Department of Transportation to install those two lanes as part of the reconstruction of Route 9A (West Street).

The project is expected to begin next spring, with completion of the controversial intersection in February 2008.

Opponents of the plan point to an environmental impact study showing that the added lanes will cause a 71 percent increase in accidents at the intersection. They complain that the change will narrow the median by half, giving pedestrians farther to go to reach safety from heavy, oncoming traffic.

“If the geniuses at New York State DOT had to make a decision that impacted their own families with an increased  risk of accidents, I don’t think they would make that choice,” said Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, speaking at a rally of local residents last month. “But they are seeking to impose that on this community.”

I.S. 89 principal Ellen Foote, who attended the rally, said her students must use the Chambers Street bridge to cross West Street at lunchtime. But she worries about them before and after school, when they are on their own.

“Kids are dashing down the median, the light is so short, and with the construction, the views are obstructed. I think it’s a huge problem.”

Chris Cotter, deputy director of the 9A Reconstruction Project, said in a telephone interview late last month that the turn lanes would help to keep traffic moving in a “balanced nature,” and reduce the overall potential for accidents along the corridor.

With the Freedom Tower and heavy residential development coming, Cotter said it is thought that the creation of the lanes will ease eastbound turning demands, especially on Chambers Street. And he said it is predicted that the change will reduce the accident rate at intersections to be created at Vesey and Liberty Streets.

But Cotter added that his agency has yet to finalize its plans and intends further talks with the community.

 “[The turn lanes] are in our plans but that’s because at this point it’s easier to take things out than to put them in,” he said. “So it is in our contract plans but we’re still discussing it.”